Mars Hill Church

I don't get why people adore Mark Driscoll, "pastor" of Mars Hill Church.

He's changed the church charter so that all power rests with him. The other two founders of the church were gently (or not so gently) shoved out the door.

He's had (junior? sub?) lower-level pastors either kicked from the church or shunned into leaving and then extorted (in my opinion) their signatures on NDAs and non-competes before they could claim their severances.

He's preached that women are second-class citizens that owe their spouses sex on demand, threatened people with violence, and preached that "manly" men are basically mannerless, violent pigs.

He's been accused of plagiarizing parts of the books he's "authored".

Over 200K of church funds were spent to buy up copies of his last book to get it on the NYT's bestsellers list.

A fund that was set up to fund more churches and aid in developing countries was quietly merged with the church's general fund, meaning that people who had donated money to, say, a new church in Africa were actually spending money to buy/fix-up yet another church in the US.

And now? Now that he's been faced with a boatload of cranky former members and pastors? Well, you'll be surprised to hear (sarcasm) that he's really, really sorry. He's taking an "extended focus break" from the church (six weeks isn't all that "extended"). He's gonna pray on it and the Lord will forgive him. That's what annoys me--the total lack of accountability. The attitude of, "Hey, I said I was sorry! God forgave me, so what's your problem?".

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I read something about this guy, definitely not surprising. I had no idea the ministry was THAT misogynistic (sp?)- all I remember was that it was the kind of message guys liked. Thought he was just making church "hip" and "cool." He preached letting the guy take the lead (typical religion), but I don't remember the sex part. Yikes.